Customer Reviews

Egyptian Arabic (Lonely Planet Phrasebooks)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I lived in Egypt for nine months, studying Arabic intensively. I have bought probably twenty or so textbooks and phrasebooks on Arabic, both Standard and Colloquial Egyptian. Briefly, let me provide an overview of this book's strong and weak points:
1. Excellent for someone who is genuinely interested in Egyptian Arabic, but perhaps too much for a week-long interest.
2. Excellent vocabulary resource with a variety of subjects. I always used it as my first reference in everyday conversation. As far as I know, no one has written such a comprehensive yet approachable book for Egyptian Arabic.
3. Weak on teaching Egyptian Arabic grammar. It gives an overview. If you have already had an introduction, you will be able to extrapolate grammar through common sense but this book does not explicitly break down sentence structure or conjugation.

I gave this book five stars, despite its weaknesses, because it far superior to other Egyptian Arabic books-text books or phrase books. If you go to Egypt, enjoy it because it is a first-class adventure.

Perfect for those really interested in Egyptian Arabic!
Few grammar, but it's a prasebook. Great variety of subjects and very good vocabulary.
I also have Colloquial Arabic of Egypt they make a perfect couple!

I love this book!!! When in Egypt this June, I used it to my heart's content. Thanks to this book, I have learned very much in speaking the Arabic language. Being a student of Arabic, I found this small phrasebook even more efficient in teaching me than my textbook from school! It is simply awesome. Although the grammar could have been talked about more, I found this book a life-saver in many situations while being in North Africa. This book will teach you pronunciation, the Arabic alphabet, numbers, and thousands of useful phrases whilst in Egypt. The best Arabic-learning tool out there!

This little book and its brother for Farsi are well worth the modest price. For self-study these books not only provide good access to phrases (with valuable commentary) but also good "spelling lessons" in the two languages. If only the writing were a tiny bit larger! My aging eyes need a magnifier to pick out the diacritical marks with certainty.

This book is outstanding! It gives you everything that you will need. One thing I would advise is to couple it with something audible because the Egyptian language is very particular in pronunciations. Most of their vowel sounds are quite a bit different from English. Just one slip of the tongue and you could be saying "I want to go to the bathroom" or "I want to eat pigeon"

I ordered this book 2 years ago just before going to visit my in-laws. My Arabic is still not to the point where I can hold a decent conversation, but thankfully some of the family spoke English. This book definitely helped when we were all at a loss for words because it contains both the transliteration and the Arabic script. Even if you're not familiar with the sounds of the Arabic letters, you can always just show someone the book and they can read it and perfectly understand what you're trying to say.

I really love this book and recommend it to all my friends who are traveling to Egypt.

This book is very useful and has the most important grammar and vocabulary in the Egyptian Arabic language. I'm very pleased with the product and it's easy to use as a good start for those who wants to learn this language.

An excellent and handy little book that is easy to carry and contains a lot of very useful information especially when one is at a loss for a phrase or a word. It helped jog my memory because, as a youth, I was once fluent in colloquial Egyptian Arabic but regretably no more.

Seriously the authors of this phrase book have done the impossible, actually made a great Arabic learning tool for english speakers which is rare, and made a great phrase book for travelling all in one! I had my doubts but bought this solely for learning Egyptian Arabic since a site recommended it. It's cheap so I thought what the hey...well it's cheap and AWESOME! 6 stars!

Having traveled to Egypt 3 years ago, I tried to learn some Arabic......... with little success. This phrase book is very easy to use. I know that I won't be speaking fluently so it is great to have a handy "guide" when I return to Egypt later this year!!